Fuel relief, Agoa warning and voter anger dominate President’s election briefing

With the 4 November local government elections just over two weeks away, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa has revealed how he warned Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero that he could lose his job ahead of the November 2025 G20 summit.

Speaking with editors and journalists in Johannesburg on Monday, 19 October at a Black Wednesday event – marking the 1977 apartheid government crackdown on black resistance publications, organisations and people – he acknowledged voter anger, hinted at fuel price relief and warned that South Africa could lose its African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) trade benefits with the US. But when confronted with South Africa’s economic and municipal failures, he repeatedly returned to his national reform programme.

He acknowledged deep public dissatisfaction with collapsing municipal services ahead of the 4 November elections, but insisted that national reforms would eventually produce economic growth and better lives.

Here are five key takeaways.

1. Ramaphosa warned Morero

The President revealed that he had warned Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero to clean up the city ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit, held in Johannesburg on 22 and 23 November 2025, or risk losing his job.

“As we were going to the G20, I drove around the streets, and I called the mayor,” he recalled. “Do you expect them to come to a Joburg as filthy as this? If you value your job, start cleaning up,” he admonished the mayor. Morero immediately stepped up the clean-up campaign in the city, according to Ramaphosa.

Morero led a six-week inner-city clean-up operation in February 2025, followed by a campaign to rehabilitate illegal dumping sites in June. The preparations intensified ahead of the November gathering of world leaders.

The account offered an unusually direct glimpse into how the ANC president put pressure on the mayor of South Africa’s largest city, where deteriorating infrastructure and service delivery have become major election issues.

It was a political ultimatum rather than a formal threat of dismissal. Ramaphosa said he had recently delivered a similar warning in Mangaung after encountering filthy streets there. He demanded action and promised to return within a week. Cleaning equipment appeared the following day.

He gave a third example of his personal interventions to get officials to act, recalling: “I landed at an air force base some time ago and I said, ‘These weeds must be gone when I come back.’” When he returned, the weeds had been removed.

The three anecdotes illustrated how the President had resorted to personally demanding action on basic maintenance and cleanliness, even as his party struggled to convince voters that its local governments could deliver.

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He said the ANC was encountering widespread unhappiness on the campaign trail.

“Many South Africans are deeply frustrated by the state of local government,” he said, citing electricity disruptions, deteriorating roads and water failures. “A mother opens a tap and there is no water… People have spoken to us with great frankness. People say, ‘We expect much more from you.’”

Yet he urged the party not to interpret anger as outright rejection. “We should not mistake disappointment for hostility. Those who criticise most have invested the most hope in our movement.”

His account of campaigning in KwaZulu-Natal illustrated the political dilemma. Pensioners and children thanked him for social grants, while unemployed young people demanded jobs. “The young people say, ‘We want jobs. You have educated us.’”

His response was to explain the national reform programme, including efforts to revive rail infrastructure. But this was also the central tension in his briefing: voters are demanding working municipalities now, while Ramaphosa is asking them to believe that national reforms will eventually improve their lives.

He also defended the ANC’s candidate selection process, saying the party had opened up the selection of mayoral candidates. Of Johannesburg, he said: “It is by no means only Dada Morero who should be able to tell you the story of Johannesburg.”

The ANC has shortlisted Morero, Johannesburg regional chairperson Loyiso Masuku and the Rev Frank Chikane for its mayoral nomination. Chikane, however, was subsequently absent from the ANC's certified SA Electoral Commission (IEC) candidate list.

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2. Fuel price relief under consideration

Ramaphosa signalled that the government was considering further measures to cushion South Africans against soaring fuel prices. “It’s a matter we are giving consideration to,” he said.

He put the cost of previous government intervention to cushion consumers against rising fuel prices at approximately R24-billion, saying money had been diverted from other programmes.

The National Treasury estimated that temporary fuel levy reductions between April and June 2026 cost R17.2-billion in foregone tax revenue, funded through higher-than-expected revenue and underspending. A previous four-month fuel levy relief package in 2022 cost R10.5-billion, according to the Treasury's 2023 Budget Review.

Separately, Parliament’s Standing Committee on Appropriations has approved a report on a proposed R10-billion fuel stabilisation allocation to the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, funded through the National Revenue Fund. The Bill still requires parliamentary approval. The President also cited a contingency reserve of R5-billion as evidence of the government's limited fiscal room.

According to the National Treasury's February 2026 Budget, R5-billion was originally allocated to the contingency reserve for the 2026/27 financial year, to accommodate expenditure arising from declared disasters. The comments are significant because Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will deliver the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday, 21 October.

3. A stark warning: SA could lose Agoa

Ramaphosa delivered one of his clearest warnings yet about the possibility of South Africa losing its preferential access to the United States market under Agoa.

“We are not the first and only country to be taken out of Agoa and will not be the last,” he said. “We should not jump off tall buildings, and of course it will be devastating.”

The warning comes as the future of South Africa’s access to the programme remains uncertain. Its current extension expires on 31 December. Loss of Agoa benefits could hurt exporters, particularly in motor manufacturing and agriculture, and threaten jobs.

Ramaphosa said South Africa was actively looking for alternative markets, pointing to trade opportunities with China. He said he and Deputy President Paul Mashatile had travelled internationally to explore new trading opportunities.

4. Economic growth takes time

Confronted with the gap between the government’s reform announcements and South Africa’s disappointing economic performance, Ramaphosa insisted that structural change would eventually produce growth.

The International Monetary Fund now expects South Africa’s economy to grow by just 1% in 2026, compared with its 1.4% forecast at the beginning of the year. Ramaphosa defended the rebuilding of Eskom, the South African Revenue Service, the rail network and other institutions damaged by State Capture.

“The transformation process has been deep, meaningful and impactful in the various areas,” he said, adding that ratings agency upgrades to South Africa’s outlook and credit ratings showed growing confidence.

“When it comes to the economy, it takes time to reinvigorate the confidence.”

He cited the revival of passenger rail as evidence that national reforms were beginning to work.

Official figures show that the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) recorded more than 100 million passenger journeys in the financial year ending March 2026, up from approximately 77 million the previous year. These are journeys, not individual commuters.

Ramaphosa also spoke of ambitions to expand early childhood development (ECD) from about two million children to seven million. The time frame and basis for that figure were not clear.

In a separate address on Monday, Ramaphosa said more than 1.6 million children were attending registered early learning programmes, with the government working towards universal access by 2030.

“Infrastructure is the flywheel of the economic growth process,” he argued, pointing to rail reform, the development of Boegoebaai Port in the Northern Cape and new investments. He said that unemployment in the Northern Cape had fallen (but the province is sparsely populated, with extreme poverty).

“Economic growth is going to follow in the wake of the transformational processes we are involved in.”

He also defended commissions of inquiry, including the Zondo and Madlanga commissions, as necessary to rebuild state institutions and prevent future capture. The President argued that repairing the damage caused by State Capture was an essential precursor to growth.

5. A defender of media freedom

Marking Black Wednesday, the anniversary of the apartheid government’s 1977 assault on independent newspapers – when The World and Weekend World newspapers were banned, and The World editor, Percy Qoboza, and deputy editor Aggrey Klaaste were detained – Ramaphosa strongly defended media freedom and the right of journalists to hold political leaders accountable.

“Freedom of the media must be defended not only when its reporting is agreeable to us but especially when it is not. A free press is one that has the freedom to question the government and expose its failures. That is the nature of democracy.”

He acknowledged the financial crisis confronting journalism, particularly the migration of advertising revenue to global digital platforms and the decline of community rural media. “When communities lose their voices, democracy itself is threatened,” he warned.

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Ramaphosa also revealed plans to lead a delegation to Silicon Valley after the elections to engage with technology companies on artificial intelligence. “I’ve been seeking to immerse myself in AI,” he said.

He wanted to understand how the technology works and how South Africa could benefit from it. But he also warned of its dangers, citing a fabricated image showing him and Deputy President Mashatile in hospital beds, which many people believed was genuine. (Both leaders were recently ill and out of office at the same time.)

“Disinformation can undermine public confidence and inflame divisions,” he said. “That is why credible and professional journalism is more important than ever before.” DM

We used ChatGPT to help arrange transcribed notes and to check certain facts. The writer transcribed the notes live and checked the process throughout.